Re: [piecepack] Re: piecepack Workshop: Cell Management v0.6 by Mark Goadrich

[Mark Goadrich <mark.goadrich@...>]

Well, the two-player option was more of an afterthought (I noticed that the
game setup used exactly half of the piecepack components and said "Hey, two
can play at this game..") and I think Mike's right in saying that it's
unlikely to be very appealing. It would take a lot more work and tweaking to
make a viable two-player game with guards vs species, so I'll drop that for
now but keep it in the back of my head, thanks for the critiques, honesty is
very helpful.

Next revision, I'll make more explicit a scoring system for the personal
bests, the number of circuits as Clark suggested should work, as well as a
way to write down a solution in terms of the cells where you choose to start
the guards (for the example in the rules, you'd write 4-Null-...) so other
people can verify your scores. Might add that into the Wiki page too for
people to post their bests and their paths.

Thanks again, if you get to play it I'd be interested to hear how it went. I
noticed someone uploaded a screen-shot of playing Cell Management in Vassal
online, sweet!

Mark

>Suggestions? Only very, very minor ones, really. Cell Management looks
> >great as it is! You might want to consider a scoring system (instead
> >of "speed") to help players rate their performances in head-to-head
> >contests -- maybe the number of circuits the guards make? Solo players
> >could keep records for their personal bests as well.
>
> >Clark
>
> For a two player version you may want to consider letting one player take
> the part of the guards. I realize that this means the game is assymetrical
> and will require additional design thought plus probably additional play
> options for the guards player. I also appreciate that assymetrical games in
> particular require much play-testing to insure balance. However sometimes
> this problem can be addressed by allowing a position swap by the nominally
> weaker starting position player after one to three moves. This scheme has
> been used successfully in a number of abstract assymetrical games to enforce
> effective symmetry throughout the game. At any rate, to be brutally
> honest----that's what good critics should be, right?----the present 2-player
> option is, I feel, unlikely to interest many players because of the complete
> lack of player interaction. Having said that, I don't feel that designers of
> solitaire games should feel any obligation to include a 2-player option
> unless it naturally fits; there's nothing wrong with a pure solitaire game.
> I've authored or co-authored two piecepack solitaires myself as well as half
> a dozen various non-piecepack solitaire games and none of them include a
> non-solitaire variant.
>
> I haven't tried playing Cell Management yet but I will in the next day or
> two or three and then I'll report back my impressions. From reading the
> rules it looks quite interesting and I'm eager to try it!
>